As summer comes to a close what’s a more perfect way to prepare yourself for the bitter coldness of winter, so grab your thermals because Lost Planet 3 takes you back to that cold planet E.D.N. III. But this time before Lost Planet: Extreme Conditions.
In Lost Planet 3 we’re taken back to the roots of the first games to how E.D.N. III 50 years before the original Lost Planet. You play as Jim Peyton a NEVEC employee who has left his wife and kid back home on Earth to make his living on E.D.N III.
The first thing you notice in Lost Planet 3 is how its atmosphere captures you right from the very beginning, from the blue hue of the ice environments to the dark caves you explore. The atmosphere reminded me of Dead Space, with how it reminds you that if your cut off from the rest of humanity facing dangerous odds trying to find a way to save the human race. However in the case of the Lost Planet series you’re looking for a source of energy to save solve Earth’s energy crisis.
As you play through Lost Planet 3 you will experience the beauty and the ugly of E.D.N. III has to offer, the Akrid only amplify the effects of the environments even using the environment to their advantage to kill you.
Of course you wouldn’t be able to achieve all the goals throughout the games story without your trusty Utility Rig. Your Utility Rig acts as a home from home, protecting you from the vast unpredictable climate of E.D.N. III or being killed by Dongo’s. With your Utility Rig you will be able to fulfil contracts and in time after upgrading and progressing through the story be able to access certain areas previously unreachable. To add to the depth of the story throughout the game Jim and his wife will exchange video messages. So as your walking round in your Rig which is essentially a giant mech, you will notice around the cockpits view of your rig sentimental items that remind you on Jim’s wife.
However one of the interesting things about being a prequel to the first game is how collecting T-ENG doesn’t keep you alive anymore so you’re most likely asking why are we collecting it, well not only are we collecting it to just try and refine it and make it suitable to power Earths energy crisis, on E.D.N. III it’s your source of credit to upgrading your weapons and utility rig. As you upgrade your gear and progress through the story the more deadly Akrid you will face, even ultimately NEVEC.
While Lost Planet 3 uses a variety of new techniques trying to keep the games graphics fresh you can obviously still see its using an older engine, with slight frame rate issues in certain spots however that being said this is one of the best atmospheric games I have played today. So while in game cinematic aren’t worth merit, those sexy pre-rendered cutscene certainly do give you a sense of reward.
Lost Planet 3 offers up a sense of open world allowing players to achieve some secondary goals for extra T-ENG that will ultimately help you upgrade you rig, also added extra story to the main arc.
Mech combat mixed with on ground combat certainly did spice things up for a while, but can get repeative.
“Great Story”
Lost Planet 3 serves a great story offering greater depths into its universe offering a variety of combat on foot or in your mech. However its out dated graphics has its hilarious moments in cut-scenes and can also get slightly repetitive in terms of combat.